All That Matters
by VAfanfiction
Summary: (One-Shot) Rose is able to save Dimitri in the caves, but what will everyone around them say? (This is my first time writing a fanfiction so please let me know how I did!)


I could hear screams ripping through the woods and realized a moment later that they were coming from me. I was looking towards the cave, where Dimitri was fighting off the blond strigoi who threatened Lissa. He had his mouth attached to Dimitri's neck and I saw him take the man of my life down. I tried running in and was shocked to see that Stan was holding me back.

"What are you doing Rose, more are coming!"

Couldn't he understand that Dimitri was in there? My mom saw me struggling with Stan and started to pull me away from the caves.

"Run! The sun is almost down, we need to go!" She screamed, as she began yanking me away from the caves, along with Stan.

"I'm not leaving him!" With all of the strength I could muster up, I pushed away from my mother and Stan, ignoring the sounds of the guardians yelling at me to come back, and ran straight into the caves. Without even needing my strigoi nausea detector, I was able to see at least six strigoi circling me. I knew Lissa was using a lot of Spirit to help those who were injured on campus. I sucked in every lick of darkness that I could from her. I thought of every single thing that had gone wrong in the past few months- Victor kidnapping Lissa, turning his daughter strigoi, Spokane, Jesse, and every other injustice that had occurred and used it all to fuel the fire of the darkness growing in me. A small part in my brain was telling me that I nearly killed Jesse less than 24 hours ago using darkness and there was a chance I might not make it out this time. But I did not care. I would do anything I could to save Dimitri, and if that meant giving up my sanity and then so be it.

The darkness filled me up completely and I began to fight the strigoi. It could have been seconds, minutes or hours, I did not know, but as I looked around, I noticed that all six strigoi lay dead at my feet. I turned towards the blond strigoi that had attacked Dimitri and noticed that he was already approaching me. I didn't know if it was leftover darkness within me or just my own hatred for the monster that not only threatened my best friend, but also tried to kill the man of my life, but as soon as he approached me, I was ready for the fight. I dodged every punch and kick he tried to throw my way and enjoyed watching his growing frustration and anger. I would have loved to keep taunting him if I hadn't looked past him to see Dimitri struggling to lift his head up. I ducked, dodging another punch coming my way, and slammed my stake into the heart of the blond strigoi. Before he even fell to the floor, I was already running towards Dimitri.

I approached him and lifted his head up into my lap.

"Hey comrade, I need you to get up, okay? It's almost night time and we need to hurry up before more show up." I do not know if it was the urgency in my voice or whatever strength he had left over that caused him to push his body to stand up, and together we made our way out of the caves.

The only coherent words that came out of Dimitri's mouth as we made our way back to the academy was my name. I had his arm around my shoulder and was supporting most of his weight. I thanked whoever was sitting up in the sky for the amount of adrenaline and strength I had left over after the fight with the strigoi, because I know without it, I would have never made it two steps out of the caves without falling over from exhaustion.

As we got closer to the wards, I saw guardians and moroi standing around.

"Help! I need a stretcher, hurry!" I screamed out to whoever was standing around. I looked over at Dimitri and he looked paler than I had ever seen him. The puncture wounds on his neck, along with all of the other injuries he obtained from the past 24 hours were catching up to him. If only I had been quicker to get to the caves and maybe he wouldn't have lost so much blood.

Four guardians rushed over right as I made it to the wards and helped me lower Dimitri's body onto the stretcher. I held onto Dimitri 's hand as we quickly made our way to the infirmary. I noticed the closer we got, the less firm Dimitri's hand felt around my own. I began to panic and begged the guardians to hurry. As we rushed through the doors of the infirmary, Dimitri's hand fell completely limp in mine.

"Someone help please, he's lost a lot of blood!" I screamed to anyone and everyone who would listen. Luckily, two nurses immediately transferred Dimitri onto a bigger stretcher and began to hook him up to IV's and a bag of blood. I followed them as they wheeled him away. My panic began to grow and I was trying to beg myself not to fall into a crying, heaping mess on the hospital floor. What if I was too late?

I saw Dr. Olendzki and quickly ran up to her.

"You need to help Dimitri, please! He lost a lot of blood and passed out right when we got her. Please hurry!" I did all but push her into the room Dimitri was taken into.

"I will do my best. He has already been hooked up and is receiving blood as we speak" I was about to walk into the room with her before she turned around and stopped me. "Rose, this as far as I can allow you to go," I was about to protest before she continued, "you will only get in the way and if you want us to help him quicker, then you're going to wait out here." That shut me right up.

I dragged myself away from the door and tried to calm my nerves. Just as I took a deep breath, I heard my name being shouted behind me. I turned around just as my mom threw herself at me, wrapping her arms tightly around my body.

"Rosemarie don't you ever do that again, do you hear me? Don't you ever scare me like that again." I don't know what shocked me more; the fact that my mom was showing me this much emotion and affection in public or the fact that she was actually worried about me in the caves. It made me feel slightly guilty that I did not even spare her a thought after I ran back into the caves. My mind was completely on Dimitri.

"I'm sorry mom, I'm really sorry," I said. Just as I started to hug her back, she pulled away and her worry transformed into anger. Ah, there's the Janine I know.

"What the hell were you thinking?! Do you realize you disobeyed a direct order from a head guardian to retreat? You could have gotten yourself killed! You could have gotten others killed! What the hell were you thinking?!" She pretty much screamed at me as she held a tight, and very painful grip on my forearms. I was already tired emotionally and physically and the only thing I wanted to worry about was Dimitri, so arguing with my mom was not on my agenda.

"I'm sorry," I told her and even I was shocked by the exhaustion that was evident in my voice.

"You're sorry? That's all you have to say? Rose, I don't think you understand the severity of what you've done. You disobeyed a direct order! Why the hell would you run back into the caves like that?" The only reason she didn't seem as angry as earlier was due to the fact that she was actually confused (and probably concerned for my mental health) as to why I would run back into the caves.

"I couldn't leave him mom. I couldn't let him die." I told her speaking quietly. I was sure that if I continued to speak about it, then I was seriously going to break down in front of everybody in the infirmary.

"I understand he's your mentor, but why would you risk your life and the life of the others like that? Not even Guardian Belikov would have approved of what you did. Guardians are supposed to be rational and follow orders, and you did none of that!" She told me, her voice getting loud again. I was so close to my breaking point.

"Mom you need to realize that I'm not a guardian yet! Even though I've killed strigoi before doesn't mean that I'm able to think logically and not emotionally in these situations. I understand an actual guardian wouldn't have done that, but I'm still young-

"What you did was stupid and irresponsible! What if something happened to you, then who would have guarded Vasilissa? Why would you risk your life like that?" She cut me off and questioned me again.

"I couldn't watch him die! You might not realize this, but I owe him my life." She seemed shocked by my response, but I still continued. "Dimitri is the only one who's has been there for me ever since I was brought back to the academy. He helped me every time I took too much spirit darkness from Lissa. If it weren't for all of his training, then I would've died in Spokane, or at the battle at the academy, or even the caves. I owe my life to him mom and I couldn't just let him die." I was practically pleading with her to understand my reasoning, without actually blurting out that I saved him, because I was in love with him and that if he were to die in those caves, then surely I would have died, too. She reached up and wiped my cheek, and it wasn't until then that I had realized I was crying. So much for keeping my emotions in check.

"Rose I don't agree with what you did and we certainly are not done with this conversation. I'm sure that Guardian Petrov will speak with you too since you went against a direct order." Her voice got softer and even though I could tell by her tone that we were done talking for now, I knew that she was going to seek me out when I wasn't so emotionally drained to get the rest of the answers for her questions. I sighed in relief and was about to tell her that I would find her later when I heard commotion coming from Dimitri's room. I was still in my mother's grip, but both of our heads turned to the direction of the noises coming from the room. I could hear nurses and the doctor saying 'calm down,' 'you need to get back into bed.' I heard Dimitri's voice getting closer to the door and was finally able to make out the words he was saying.

"Where is she? Where is my Roza?" He sounded frantic. I pulled myself from my mom's grip just as Dimitri tore through the door, followed by two nurses and Dr. Olendski, who were practically begging him to calm down and get back into the hospital bed. I stood frozen as I finally made eye contact with Dimitri. Without even sparing a second glance to those around us, I ran to Dimitri who was quickly approaching me and launched myself into his arms. He wrapped his arms tightly around me, as I buried my face into his chest and began to sob.

"You came back for me. You saved me Roza." He repeated over and over into my hair. He whispered to me in Russian, and though I couldn't understand what he was saying, I knew that it was loving and sweet. He peppered my forehead and hair with small kisses as I continued to cry into his shirt as all of the emotions from the past 24 hours finally caught up to me. "Why would you risk your life like that for me, huh? Do you know how stupid that was?" He gently chastised me, while ruffling the back of my hair, like one would to a child. "What would I have done if I had lost you?" His voice was thick with emotion, as he buried his face deeper into my neck.

"I couldn't let you die, comrade." I told him, still crying. I was sure that his whole shirt was soaked with my tears, but I literally could not stop myself from crying. I pulled away slightly and slapped his chest. "Don't you ever scare me like that again. Do you know how worried I was? Please, don't ever do that to me again." I begged him. I could barely finish my sentence before I started to sob again.

"I'm sorry Roza, I promise I won't. I'm sorry." He tells me, as he rubs circles on my back, trying to calm me down. "Hush now Roza, no more crying." I finally calm myself, though tears continue to escape down my cheeks. I pull away and for the first time, I notice that Dimitri and I have an audience. It seemed like everyone in the infirmary stopped what they were doing to stare at us. Some were trying to be discreet, while others weren't even hiding the fact that they were openly gawking. Some of the ones who fell into the latter category were my mom, Stan, Alberta, Adrian, Christian, and Lissa. I opened myself up to the bond just as realization about our relationship began to hit her. She started to connect the dots about Dimitri and I, and finally realized that he meant much more to me than just a mentor. For others, I was sure that they were more shocked to see the bad bitch Rose Hathaway became a sobbing, blubbering mess and the stoic, and serious Russian god, Dimitri Belikov, show actual human emotions to another individual.

And for the first time, I didn't care. I knew I had to answer Lissa's questions, since she was calling me from the bond to come and speak with her, and judging by the look on my moms face, I knew our talk would come much sooner than later. As for the others, let whoever think what they want to think about me. I almost lost the love of my life and if people thought I was going to focus my attention on anyone other than him right now, then they were sadly mistaken. One look at Dimitri's face, and I knew he was thinking the same thing. Still, we pulled completely away from each other.

"Come on comrade. The nurses and doctor are right, you need to get back into bed." I told him pulling him towards the door and giving him a small smile.

"You're right. I'm pretty sure I cracked a couple of ribs when you catapulted yourself into me." He said jokingly, giving me a smile of his own.

"Ha ha you're so funny." I said sarcastically, while rolling my eyes. Dimitri and I walked into the room, ignoring the stares of those behind us. I knew we had questions to answer, but they could wait. All that mattered was Dimitri.


End file.
